The Boston Bruins held an intense 90 minute practice Tuesday morning at Ristuccia Arena before they hit the road for a three game road trip. It may have to do with the current three game losing streak they are currently in-trying to figure out ways to score more goals.

With four goals in four games, the Black and Gold are just not capitalizing on their scoring chances which has been a problem since Opening night against the Philadelphia Flyers.

With Bobby Robins and Jordan Caron assigned back to Providence, Claude Julien has some more mixing and matching to do. With Simon Gagne now in the picture, he will look to give the B’s some experience and potentially scoring help down on the fourth line.

Here is your Bruins Daily Gameday preview:

Gameday details:

Time: 8:00 pm
Network: NBCSN/98.5 The Sports Hub
Records: Bruins 1-3-0, 2 points/ Red Wings 1-1, 2 points
Location: Joe Louis Arena

Bruins’ projected lines:

Lucic-Krejci-Griffith
Marchand-Bergeron-Smith
Kelly-Soderberg-Eriksson
Paille-Spooner-Gagne

Chara-Hamilton
Seidenberg-McQuaid
Krug-Miller

G-Rask
Svedberg

Red Wings projected lines:

Nyquist-Zetterberg-Franzen
Tatar-Sheahan-Jurco
Abdelkader-Helm-Nestrasil
Andersson-Glendening-Miller

Kronwall-Ericsson
Smith-DeKeyser
Quincey-Kindl

G-Howard
Gustavsson

Who to watch for Bruins: Carl Soderberg

It seems one of the more consistent lines for the Bruins to this point has been the third line with the combination of Chris Kelly, Soderberg and Loui Eriksson. Whenever Soderberg is on the ice, his line is finding ways to put pressure on opposing goalies. This line combination has five points (2G 3A) in four games and this is mainly because of Soderberg’s playmaking ability from the center position. We saw it last year and it is continuing through the start of 2014. His big frame, his net front presence, vision and chemistry with his linemates especially Eriksson is one of the main reasons why Julien could not separate these two with Krejci out at the beginning of the season. If the Black and Gold want to get out of their funk and start scoring goals, Soderberg will have to be in the middle of it as well.

Who to watch for Red Wings: Jimmy Howard

With the Bruins already struggling to score goals, it doesn’t get any easier for the Black and Gold tonight. Howard has the Bruins’ number. He beat the B’s a little less than a week ago in Detroit 2-1 and now holds a 5-1 record with a 1.97 goals against average in six regular season starts. Howard is coming off a 21-19-11 record last season with a .910 save percentage. It is nothing spectacular. He’s 1-1 this season letting in two goals in each game. But, when your team is having trouble lighting the lamp, the opposing goalies statistics always seem to look better.

Game day Edge: Let plays develop, Do not force shots

The Bruins will need to try and play from ahead because if not, they will begin to force shots and situations which haven’t been working out well for them lately. Building a lead early is crucial for this team at this point in the season. By playing from behind, it’s different. Players tend to get more desperate and don’t let the play develop.

Head coach Claude Julien spoke about the team pressing a little too much after their 2-1 heartbreaking loss to the Avalanche Monday.

“Right now, I think a lot of guys are forcing things,” Julien said. “That could be because of the situation we’re in. So, we’ve got to stop forcing things and make them happen. I thought we had better net front presence this afternoon and I thought our guys did a better job of that. But, the finish, whether it’s around the net or on our opportunities-it has to get better.”
Julien and the Bruins know it’s only a matter of time before the saves and misses become goals and game changers. Hopefully, it will start tonight against the Red Wings.